Revisiting the Syrian Crisis of 1957: a Critical Analysis of Enduring Implications1

International Journal of Liberal Arts and Social Science Vol. 4 No. 1 January, 2016 Revisiting the Syrian Crisis of 1957: 1 A Critical Analysis of Enduring Implications Mehmet Akif Kumral Assist.Prof.Dr., Gaziosmanpaşa University, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Department of Political Science and International Relations Taşlıçiftlik Campus, 60250 Tokat-Turkey Email: [email protected] Abstract This paper revisits the Syrian crisis of 1957 to understand its enduring historical implications. It draws important conclusions for understanding the international and regional dynamics that shaped the Syrian crisis in the post-2012 period. Extant literature has not provided a comprehensive account of the 1957 Syrian crisis. Regarding contextual reasons and consequences of this crisis, some key questions have yet to be answered. Critical inquiring of the 1957 episodic context gives better insights for making sense of the international and regional imbroglio that surrounded the Syrian affairs since 2012. By analyzing Turkish foreign policy discourse in this historical episode, this article reveals enduring implications of the 1957 crisis that gradually paved the way for re-emergence of a deep dilemma between overt (international) intervention and covert (regional/local) interference into Syria in the post-2012 period. Keywords: the 1957 Syrian crisis, the post-2012 period, US role, Turkish foreign policy, intervention, interference. 1. Introduction This paper revisits the Syrian crisis of 1957 to understand its enduring historical implications. It draws important conclusions for understanding the international and regional dynamics that shaped the Syrian crisis in the post-2012 period. By looking at the extant scholarly literature, the author explores main analytical gaps left in between International Relations (IR) and Middle East Studies (MES). Historical and factual approach constituted the dominant mode of knowledge production in IR and MES. These fact- finding investigations primarily relied on (de)classified US and UK official documents. To a great extent, the historicist analyses see the crisis as real. They bring wealth of evidence that portrays the secret 1 Shorter and simpler version of this paper was presented at the 14th METU Conference on International Relations, Ankara, 17-19 June 2015. 83 International Journal of Liberal Arts and Social Science ISSN: 2307-924X www.ijlass.org dimension of international and Middle Eastern politics. More particularly, they do reflect covert nature of US and UK foreign policy making at that time. Here, one could witness authors’ enormous effort for pulling together key intelligence and diplomacy details and giving rigorous insight about what happened behind the closed doors (Jones, 2004; Lucas and Morey, 2000). However, the historical approach does not provide a parsimonious account of what did really make the crisis to emerge so vociferously and die down so silently, and quite smoothly? Due to heavy reliance on secret archival evidence, factualist writings on the 1957 Syrian crisis have failed to fully grasp the reality on the ground which had apparently unfolded in the open public spaces. At that time, what was made public could be as important as what was kept secret. In fact, the Syrian crisis of 1957 was made real in the public spheres. Thus, purely factual analyses might not offer conceptual perspective to make sense of why and how particular foreign policy actions were made possible through public discourses addressing the Syrian crisis in 1957. This case has been relatively understudied by theory driven IR scholars including Stephen M. Walt. According to Walt’s theoretically informed interpretation, the crisis was “largely artificial” (Walt, 1987: 70). Walt does not give sufficient evidence to support his claim. He is more concerned about making sense of Soviet-Syrian alliance (1955-58) as confirming the concept of external threat balancing. As this treatment clearly demonstrates, conceptual parsimony is bought at the expense of factual reality. Too much emphasis on theory generation and hypothesis testing might end up with loss of historical vision and factual focus. Against the backdrop of historicism and conceptualism, this study seeks alternative modes of inquiry to close the fact-fiction gap in the Syrian crisis of 1957. It adopts a pragmatist philosophical stance for building new bridges between IR and MES. The author argues that the IR-MES divide could be better bridged should both sides focus more on the analyses of agents’ discursive logics shaping the context of action. For this aim, scholars may refrain from treating IR theories as explanatory instruments. Instead, they might take a less traveled path and view IR theories constituting actors’ communicative practices and hence their political judgements. As the critical analysis of Turkish foreign policy discourse in Milliyet and Zafer shows, the Syrian crisis of 1957 was made (un)real only by communicative practices in the public spheres. 2. Historical approach to the 1957 Syrian crisis: Re-filtering of factual controversies Scholars of diplomatic-intelligence history heavily rely on secret US-UK documents in order to establish a factual ground to explain reasons that made 1957 Syrian crisis real. Factual approach provides historical data as to how the crisis unfolded in the international environment of the early Cold War years. More or less, the evidence found in these resources help us to canvas the historical background. At this point, one needs to inquire how these resources mapped out factual reasons that led to the outbreak of the crisis. In this regard, it has to be noted that hermeneutical differences emerged among the scholars of historical approach. First and foremost, they could not fully agree on the actual target of “Eisenhower Doctrine,” which was outlined by the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower on 5 January 1957. For example, Stephen Blackwell (2000) portrays the Doctrine as a policy measure designed to counter penetration of Soviet power into the Middle East. By looking at British documents, however, Blackwell exposes other puzzles that predominantly emanate from different threat perceptions of the US and Britain. Historians still remain ambivalent about whether communism or Arab nationalism posed the bigger threat against Anglo- American interests. Associated with this factual controversy, one could ask another key question: What was the real position of Egyptian President Gamal Abd al-Nasser during the Syrian crisis, a Soviet protégée or a CIA confidante? Based on analysis of US archival documents, David W. Lesch (1999) points out that the US administration’s “policy misconceptions and misapplications” have determined global parameters of the 84 International Journal of Liberal Arts and Social Science Vol. 4 No. 1 January, 2016 crisis. In this regard, Lesch particularly highlights Nasser as playing a key regional role in the making of “American-Syrian crisis.” Here Lesch notes that Nasser’s PanArabist political clout in the region had gradually forced Washington to seek a modus vivendi with Cairo. Hence “Eisenhower Doctrine…[which was]…a policy designed to isolate and reduce the power of…al-Nasser” was reluctantly abandoned. Largely due to regional circumstances, Eisenhower turned to Nasser to resolve the bilateral crisis with Syria. As Lesch bluntly put, it was quiet “a telling irony” (Lesch, 1999: 128). Historical reasons of this policy paradox can be unraveled by looking at key junctures that shaped the unfolding of 1957 Syrian crisis. The signing of technical-economic cooperation agreement between Soviet Union and Syria on 6 August was a threatening development for the (pro)Western countries that kept important interests in Syria and the Middle East. Undoubtedly, global stakes were higher for US and UK. They were not only concerned about widening of Soviet infiltration and communist penetration, but also the expanding of Nasser’s anti-imperialist influence over the region, which became more apparent after the Suez debacle. Both Washington and London were in dire need of a friendly regime in Syria. They clandestinely attempted to bring about a regime change in Damascus. But the Syrian intelligence revealed this secret plan. On 12 August, US diplomats were expelled from Syria. The due response of Washington came in two days. By then the crisis began to escalate. Later, in September and October, it turned into a Cold War type diplomatic duel and intelligence warfare among global actors, regional and local players. 2.1 Untold tales of the crisis: Re-casting the role of out-siders After the failure in Suez, Britain’s strategic decline became more obvious. London was in search of a defensive strategy to safeguard its economic and military assets in Iraq and the region at large. In this regard, the safety of Kirkuk-Tripoli oil pipeline was important for British interests. Thus, London was far more concerned about curbing Nasser’s political influence and controlling implications of Arab nationalism over the region. In spite of the fact that US was less reliant on Middle Eastern oil, global stakes were much higher for the Americans that made them more “prone to overreaction” in their response to Soviet strategic moves (Pearson, 2007: 45-47, 51-52). According to US and British sources, the level of “communist control [over Syria] actually remained questionable…The potential for subversive activity…nevertheless remained a serious concern” for both London and Washington (Blackwell, 2000:

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